So my memory? Not the greatest. Beth picked me up last night for karaoke and I had mentioned the post about going to Manny’s (that no one commented on except for myself (it looked lonely)) and she said “Yeah, I read it. You’re not really good at quoting me. Or yourself.” And I said “Really? Did I quote you wrong?” And she said “Yes, considering I’m the one that pointed out the supermarket.” And I’m pretty sure I said “Oops.” But I don’t remember. You could ask Beth. She remembers these things much better than me.

We went to a new restaurant last night (new to us) called Potbelly. The name of the place struck us a little odd. Beth thought it was indicating that they made people fat, I thought it was referring to potbelly pigs. Turns out that it is named for potbelly stoves. Which strikes me as odd but probably not as odd as a restaurant that is saying “hey, come eat some food and get fat like a pig.”

Beth should be posting a conversation with her mother that she had while we were at the restaurant. I will not say much about it other than, at one point, listening to Beth’s side of the conversation, I ended up covering my mouth with a napkin and trying very hard not to laugh hysterically. There may have been tears of laughter.

We avoided the evil temptations of Barnes & Noble and Michael’s (books and scrapbooking supplies. We are very strong women) and headed off to karaoke. We got there fairly early and it was remarked on by both Jamie (bartender) and Bryan (karaoke host (like I don’t talk about him all the time)). Beth had 5 days off this week so we thought it would be fun to go up early.

Karaoke got started (yay!) and we were amused to see a semi-regular singer come in. This is the man that I mentioned back when I wrote about Quagna and how my true love was from South Africa and may or may not be gay. He is quite a character and I want so much to give you his nickname but I am worried that someday he might Google it and find my blog and then I would feel evil and that would just be wrong.

I called Steve, Beth’s team lead and told him that he should come up because a) this guy (let’s call him Walking Wally) is hilarious when he sings (imagine a short, rotund man, balding, with suspenders on stage and bouncing around with the actions to the songs. Imagine that said man is using a microphone stand and starts singing Pinball Wizard. Imagine he acts that he is playing a pinball machine. It is so very funny) and b) Beth really wanted to know what was happening at work because she is very odd and dedicated to her job and quite possibly the best manager ever (not that I’m biased or anything) but she didn’t want to call him and ask him about work (when we were in Portugal, she kept hoping that Andy (her former boss) would email her about the team).

Unfortunately, Walking Wally only sang one song and left. We felt horrible about getting Steve there under somewhat false circumstances but it was still nice to see him and he and Beth had a good talk and caught up on everything. She will not see him again until November.

At one point, after Steve had left (or maybe before, I’m not so good with the memory thing), I have a burning question that I must ask Beth.

DM: What should I sing next?B: Chicken (said loudly and in a somewhat comical voice)!DM: I don’t know that song.B: You could just sing ‘Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!’ And then they would put you in the looney bin.

Great. One of my best friends ever wants me to be committed.

Bryan was doing something with the microphone stand when he called Joe Funko up to sing. It moved when he wasn’t expecting it and he sort of leaned/jumped back from the mic.

Bryan: I’m like a mime.B: That talks.Bryan: Yeah (He then starts doing the classic “mime caught in a box” routine). This is the biggest box I have ever seen.

When we started getting towards the end of the night, Bryan decided we would play a new game. It would be like Match Game (I am assuming this was a game show of some sort) and the person singing would choose 3 celebrities (that would be us from the audience) to give them a song to sing. Then the singer would choose which of those songs they were going to sing.

Shawn decided to sing “Beth”, much to Beth’s dismay. She is not overly fond of this song (double our reaction to “Picture” and you’ve got a good idea of her dislike)

I have been trying to get Bryan to sing “Candy Man” for, well, ever since the last time he sang it. He does an imitation of Sammy Davis Jr that is just hilarious and I love it. So every time someone asked me what they should sing I would yell out “Candy Man!” After I did this twice, Bryan said “Don’t ask Dana. You know what she is going to say.”

Mr. Dimsdale (I have no idea what his first name is. Bryan refers to him this way and to Mr. Dimsdale’s wife as Bopocito. I suppose that isn’t so odd, considering that I now go by Hurricane Dana) was called up and the game was explained to him.

Mr. Dimsdale asks two other people and decides that “Candy Man” is the lesser of the 3 evils. He does a pretty good job of it. Not like Bryan’s version but still, it made me happy. And that is what is important, right?

Later on, when Bopocito was called up, she asked me what she should sing. I drew a complete blank.

Bryan: Ha! Don’t know what to say now that someone sang ‘Candy Man,’ do you?

I ended up suggesting “Purple Rain.”

The closer we got to closing time, the less time we had to sing. Instead of just having one or two people sing full songs, Bryan decided to continue with the game and limit us to one minute. This is how I ended up singing “Saturday In the Park” and Beth ended up singing “Playing With the Queen of Hearts.” This game is a lot of fun and really exposes us to a lot of different songs, especially songs we probably would not have tried before.

Liz came over and we had a good time talking to her. As if it would be possible to not have a good time. She has never been to Manny’s and Beth and I decided that when she and Bryan get married, we will take them there.

In other news, I am going to try making some changes to my blog. I found a couple of websites that have free templates for Blogger and I think I need a new look. Of course I forgot to email the ones I had narrowed it down to (only five or six to choose from) to myself from work and I may wait until Monday. Or not.

Tomorrow Keem and I are going to go scrapbook/stamp (haven’t decided yet) at a work friend’s house. That should be fun. And Sunday is karaoke. Even better than being karaoke? It’s the Sunday before Halloween. Rock on. You know I will be dressing up.